HP Turns To Distributors

As part of the plan, HP&s U.S. distributors will take the lead in marketing and supporting PartnerOne, especially to HP solution providers who haven&t achieved Gold or Platinum status. HP, Palo Alto, Calif., will retain responsibility for all PartnerOne rebate accounting and processing.

“For partners who are not part of our assigned field coverage because they are not a Gold or Platinum, they can now call their distributor with questions about PartnerOne instead of trying to track someone down within HP,” said David Pansen, vice president of channel distribution at HP.

Pete Peterson, vice president of software and systems product marketing at Tech Data, Clearwater, Fla., said, “The Gold and Platinum partners all have PBM [partner business manager] relationships. The HP Business Partner depends a lot on distribution.”

John Thompson, HP&s vice president and general manager of the Solution Partners Organization, Americas, said that HP won&t provide any additional funding to distributors. Instead, the benefits will come in growing their HP business by encouraging greater participation in PartnerOne programs among their solution providers.

“We see this as a self-funding activity,” he said. “With this tighter alignment with solution providers, we expect to see growth for distributors. We want to grow the entire market, not simply have a share shift.”

Thompson said distributors have daily contacts with thousands of solution providers, and HP wants to leverage this by including distributors in PartnerOne.

Distributors, for their part, say they expect to increase their HP business by marketing PartnerOne to smaller HP solution providers who may be leaving rebate dollars on the table because they aren&t aware of the program details. What&s more, the PartnerOne program is structured such that solution providers who take the necessary steps to move up from Business Partner to Gold status can reap significantly more rebate money from HP.